Kristine Lilly believes that the three-straight defeats suffered by the U.S. women’s national team during the fall of 2022 will serve as an important wake-up call as they look to win a third-straight World Cup in Australia and New Zealand, beginning in July.
The U.S. succumbed to three defeats in succession for the first time since 1993 across October and November, going down 2-1 to England, 2-0 to Spain and falling 2-1 to Germany. The defeats also marked the first time since 2001 that they had conceded multiple goals in three-straight fixtures, while the loss to Germany in Florida broke a 71-game unbeaten streak on home soil.
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A subsequent 2-1 win over Germany, twice overpowering an understrength New Zealand in January and a 2-0 win over Canada in the first game of the SheBelieves Cup on Thursday have gone some way to steadying the ship for Vlatko Andonovski’s side since then, with games against Asian powers Japan and South American mainstays Brazil set to come this week.
“It’s always good. Because sometimes you go through times just winning and you don’t think anything of it,” Lilly, who amassed 354 caps for the U.S. across an incredible 24-year career, told ESPN of those losses. “It’s not cockiness, but they’re confident. But sometimes it’s ‘alright, let’s refocus again’ and you know anything can happen on any given day.
“Those games, they’ve probably learned a lot about what they need to be better and they’ll now gear up for the next couple of months to make sure they fine-tune everything.
“I think [Andonovski has] done well. The thing is that you have this young talent coming in. It’s [about] fitting in the young, new players that haven’t been in a World Cup — which I think will be a handful — and putting those nerves at ease.
“Because a first World Cup is nerve wracking and it’s different when you step on that field. Moulding the team together with good chemistry and culture there, I think they’ll be effective.
“I think he’s done a good job so far and he’s got the stage to come on and to do it. It’s never easy, so hopefully they’ll put the right foot forward and make things happen.”
